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Scripps to launch national/local 4PM live program this fall


Glimmer

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Oh, it's a full hour? I was under the impression that it was a 30 minute show.

 

From seeing the positioning of this program, I'm reminded of a social-ified version of the short-lived 90s program Day & Date, a sort of "soft lead-in" to evening news programs while being light with features.

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I caught about the first 35 minutes of KSHB's....It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. To their defense, they worked in much more local content than I was expecting, and did a decent job tying in social media. As long as is isn't considered "news" per se, I don't have a problem with a show blurring lines as long as it isn't a hard-core, defined newscast doing such things and being advertised as such.

 

Comparing this to the mess that WJZY puts out on a nighty basis....this was WAAAAAY better....so much so that WJZY could learn a thing or two from Scripps.

 

I do think that some of my opinion is based on the "newness" factor. To keep a show like this interesting (and viable for an ENTIRE station group) is going to take some work....

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I caught the last 15 minutes of "The Now-KC" on KSHB. And, the first 30 minutes of "The Now-Denver" on KMGH. I'll provide my thoughts on what I saw.


  • As noted the graphics look like a love child of the Gannett and Hearst packages. Basically, parallelograms and color-coded tabs. Although, the orange TheRob mentioned looked more yellow to me.
     
  • The entire newscast/program appears to be "stand-up" either in the studio or newsroom positioned next to a monitor.
  • The stupid time/temp bug in the upper right can be a bit distracting.
  • Playing up the lighter feel the Denver Anchor, Lionel Bienvenu, was sans tie and wearing jeans with his sport coat.
  • The National Anchor, Anne MacNamara, needs to slow down a bit. She ripped through the first story on the Israeli Palestinian conflict really quick. Although a fast moving program it was kind of jarring given the pacing established.
  • At least from the thirty minutes I saw most of the Denver version took place in the studio. OTOH, as noted The KC version appeared to be newsroom heavy.
  • The Denver newsroom "stand-up" location looked like an afterthought. It was in a hallway/doorway or some damn thing. It looked like they didn't have room in the newsroom so, they set up next to a corridor going to the newsroom. It looked terrible.
  • The Steady-Cam operators need to lay off the coffee or something...especially KC. Given KC was mostly in the Newsroom they relied heavily on the Steady-Cam for large chunks. The shaking got to be really distracting. I'm not sure if it's intended or not but, it needs to be tightened up if they are going to use these cameras.
  • I must have been distracted with the last handoff to the national desk on the KC version. But, at least on the Denver version they had some cross-talk in a side-by-side on the handoffs both going to and coming out of the :15 national desk segment. I guess I wasn't paying close enough attention to see if I was live or Memorex. But, I'm not sure how they plan to do that on all the stations unless they pre-record it.

It needs some polish here and there. I realize they want "one brand" across all the stations to tie everything together. However, the name is kind of rough. But, If you omitted the branding you'd just have another 4pm newscast that jettisons the desk and is heavy on the fluff with a social media component. Although, it is "non-traditional" it really doesn't venture too far out of the box compared to some of the other concepts introduced of the past few years. Overall, I didn't think it was that bad.

 

Also, here is the Scripps press release on the launch of "The Now" via KMGH. It also includes some pictures of the Denver "sets."

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Sounds similar to The RundownDaily Connection which aired on NBC O&Os except that it has a national anchor.

 

But Scripps seems like they will stick with it because they would rather produce low cost syndicated programming than big name shows. I wonder what the ratings are like.

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^^^

 

He was anchoring. I only turned it on for about ten minutes, so I shouldn't judge too much, but it looked like pretty much the same format as KMGH's morning show, which is incidentally called "7News Now." (Yes, I really meant it when I said that the anchors read stories from anywhere and everywhere regardless of whether or not there's a teleprompter.) It didn't look horrible, but it seems like a strange concept to be rolling out nationally to other stations.

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Ratings from Kansas City:

 

KCTV 5.2 (News)

WDAF 3.8 (Judge Judy)

KSHB 1.9 (The Now)

KMBC 1.0 (Dr Oz)

 

Before The Now, KCTV would do 4's and KSHB would do high 2's - low 3's. I don't know about your markets, but KC HATES social media driven, fast-paced, tabloid-like newscasts . Saving the first, you can probably thank KCTV for that...

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Ratings from Kansas City:

 

KCTV 5.2 (News)

WDAF 3.8 (Judge Judy)

KSHB 1.9 (The Now)

KMBC 1.0 (Dr Oz)

 

Before The Now, KCTV would do 4's and KSHB would do high 2's - low 3's. I don't know about your markets, but KC HATES social media driven, fast-paced, tabloid-like newscasts . Saving the first, you can probably thank KCTV for that...

Well that's not good... What was replaced by The Now?

 

I don't think something like this has been tried in Detroit but the audiences skew older here so it'll probably rate similar.

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Well that's not good... What was replaced by The Now?

 

I don't think something like this has been tried in Detroit but the audiences skew older here so it'll probably rate similar.

Their news. 41 had a traditional newscast at 4.

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Their news. 41 had a traditional newscast at 4.

I'm not sure that move was all that sensible then, I would think it will drive viewers to the other newscast in the long run. It's like an early Christmas present.

 

We are gonna have Oz replaced and hopefully they will maintain their 5pm gains the last 2 books.

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Catching The Now from the halfway point.

 

Lionel Bienvenu just walked from the "main" part of the set to talk to a correspondent sitting by a bunch of monitors. It looks kind of haphazard.

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Since the debut if The Now, KSHB has fallen to last at 4, 5 and 6pm and sweeps are halfway over. Before then, KSHB was a respectable #1 at 5 and 6pm and #2 at 4pm. Essentially erases 3 sweeps period of success in one book.

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I got a feeling what little ratings WEWS gets from Right This Minute will be erased when "The Now" debuts in the fall. Fluff is meant for the morning news, NOT A 4PM NEWSCAST!!!! I expect WEWS to slide to fourth place judging by how terrible "NOW KC" is right now on KSHB.

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I got a feeling what little ratings WEWS gets from Right This Minute will be erased when "The Now" debuts in the fall. Fluff is meant for the morning news, NOT A 4PM NEWSCAST!!!! I expect WEWS to slide to fourth place judging by how terrible "NOW KC" is right now on KSHB.

 

Hopefully, hopefully, Scripps is looking at the damage it's already caused KSHB and will make the necessary adjustments so that it won't be as bad for them. So they have that going for them, but this is Scripps we're talking about here; the company that LOVES to ruin any success their stations garner (at least in KSHB's case).

 

It tries to act like a serious, traditional newscast, but it fails due to its graphics, fast-paced style, free hand, crooked camera shots and especially The National Desk. Weakest part of the show is the National Desk.

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It tries to act like a serious, traditional newscast, but it fails due to its graphics, fast-paced style, free hand, crooked camera shots and especially The National Desk. Weakest part of the show is the National Desk.

 

What is it, the National Desk of Doom?

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Shame. Shame. Shame.

 

If they went all in with this at all of their stations from the start, I would expect there would have been a lot more angry calls made to the corporate office in Cincinnati at this point.

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Ratings from Kansas City:

 

KCTV 5.2 (News)

WDAF 3.8 (Judge Judy)

KSHB 1.9 (The Now)

KMBC 1.0 (Dr Oz)

 

Before The Now, KCTV would do 4's and KSHB would do high 2's - low 3's. I don't know about your markets, but KC HATES social media driven, fast-paced, tabloid-like newscasts . Saving the first, you can probably thank KCTV for that...

Since the debut if The Now, KSHB has fallen to last at 4, 5 and 6pm and sweeps are halfway over. Before then, KSHB was a respectable #1 at 5 and 6pm and #2 at 4pm. Essentially erases 3 sweeps period of success in one book.

Do you have the numbers from last week? They started implementing a fair amount of the elements currently seen on "The Now" early. I'd be curious to see if viewers were turned off earlier given a chunk of the format was rolled out early.

 

Also, can you post a link to...or, do you have the demo breakouts? I'd really be intrigued to see those.

 

I got a feeling what little ratings WEWS gets from Right This Minute will be erased when "The Now" debuts in the fall. Fluff is meant for the morning news, NOT A 4PM NEWSCAST!!!! I expect WEWS to slide to fourth place judging by how terrible "NOW KC" is right now on KSHB.

What would you expect from a 4pm newscast? Most of them are pretty heavy on the fluff. Sports at 4pm is pretty pointless. Long form and/or investigative pieces are more suited to later newscasts. A great majority of the 4pm newscasts I've seen tend to be pretty "soft" They seem to have a lot of "lifestyle" stories and other "fluff" pieces. Given the type of shows these newscasts are usually replacing and the demos that come with those slots I'm not sure what else you can do. A "hard" news format would likely be a risker proposition than running a "softer" newscast that appeals to people that would normally be watching Ellen, Dr. Oz, etc. in that timeslot.
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Since the debut if The Now, KSHB has fallen to last at 4, 5 and 6pm and sweeps are halfway over. Before then, KSHB was a respectable #1 at 5 and 6pm and #2 at 4pm. Essentially erases 3 sweeps period of success in one book.

 

A couple things... How unique is it among Scripps stations that KSHB had a 4, 5 and 6pm newscast? We essentially have the same thing here in Detroit but Oz will get replaced because of the time zone and not a newscast. The Now should have been at 3 to preserve KSHB's 4pm newscast, and then they would have just been grouped with the Eastern stations rather than the Central ones, its not that hard to do. I have to believe that KSHB is no longer retaining viewers and some maybe even got disgusted and switched stations. I watched some of the show, it's a piece of crap.

 

The lead in to the 5pm news is what I am worried about here in Detroit, Oz had a 2.7 in May and the 5pm newscast is finally within half a point of WDIV so if this tanks it may put WXYZ in 3rd at 5 behind WJBK if there are no viewers to retain.

 

Second thought is something I read one of the executives (may have been Brian Lawler) saying about the Scripps in-house programming: "We understand that for awhile we will take a ratings hit, but we believe that viewers will find our shows and we will begin to build an audience". The unanswered question there is: What do you do when the audience never comes.

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Do you have the numbers from last week? They started implementing a fair amount of the elements currently seen on "The Now" early. I'd be curious to see if viewers were turned off earlier given a chunk of the format was rolled out early.

 

Also, can you post a link to...or, do you have the demo breakouts? I'd really be intrigued to see those.

 

What would you expect from a 4pm newscast? Most of them are pretty heavy on the fluff. Sports at 4pm is pretty pointless. Long form and/or investigative pieces are more suited to later newscasts. A great majority of the 4pm newscasts I've seen tend to be pretty "soft" They seem to have a lot of "lifestyle" stories and other "fluff" pieces. Given the type of shows these newscasts are usually replacing and the demos that come with those slots I'm not sure what else you can do. A "hard" news format would likely be a risker proposition than running a "softer" newscast that appeals to people that would normally be watching Ellen, Dr. Oz, etc. in that timeslot.

 

4pm Eastern Time newscasts are fluffy, yes, because they are trying to catch a (usually) female audience. 4pm Central newscasts are much more like the 5pm newscasts are in Eastern Time, fluffy and a few segments for housewives (consumer, health, etc) but not this fluffy. That may be an effect of only having a half hour before the evening news if you go on at 5 CT and not 4 or 430 CT, so they try to squeeze more hard news into the 4pm than they would in Eastern time. Central time is running an Eastern Network schedule anyways. This is why the 4pm Newscast on say WLS is more hard news than it might be at 4 on WABC, WLS is really running the central time equivalent of a 5pm show. I'm under the impression KSHB was probably doing something similar.
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Do you have the numbers from last week? They started implementing a fair amount of the elements currently seen on "The Now" early. I'd be curious to see if viewers were turned off earlier given a chunk of the format was rolled out early.

 

Also, can you post a link to...or, do you have the demo breakouts? I'd really be intrigued to see those.

 

I don't have direct access to the numbers, I get them from other people, (either directly or indirectly. There's a horrid television message board for Kansas City television and some random person or two provides them. It gets really nasty in there.), however I do know enough that their numbers were much better pre-the Now. They might have been transitioning, but it was still more or less a traditional newscast. I also believe that KSHB appeals to women more than anything? Not too sure, but given how female-heavy their talent is it wouldn't surprise me. They also increased their A25-54 demo by 96% in one year (May 2013-to-May 2014).

 

 

 

A couple things... How unique is it among Scripps stations that KSHB had a 4, 5 and 6pm newscast? We essentially have the same thing here in Detroit but Oz will get replaced because of the time zone and not a newscast. The Now should have been at 3 to preserve KSHB's 4pm newscast, and then they would have just been grouped with the Eastern stations rather than the Central ones, its not that hard to do. I have to believe that KSHB is no longer retaining viewers and some maybe even got disgusted and switched stations. I watched some of the show, it's a piece of crap.

 

Second thought is something I read one of the executives (may have been Brian Lawler) saying about the Scripps in-house programming: "We understand that for awhile we will take a ratings hit, but we believe that viewers will find our shows and we will begin to build an audience". The unanswered question there is: What do you do when the audience never comes.

 

They may have been the only one, I don't know what the other stations do. Also, they couldn't put it at 3pm because that would rid of Jeopardy!. I remember the shitstorm that arose when they launched their 4:30pm newscast and pushed Jeopardy! back to 4pm...then they expanded it to 4pm and pushed it back to 3:00-4:00. Putting the Now on at 3 would mean they'd either push Jeopardy! back even further where no one will watch it, or completely get rid of it. But KSHB is getting "The List" in September. The only place I could see them putting it is where Jeopardy! is now or before it. I think they're the only Scripps station that actually got to keep Jeopardy!.

 

And about whoever made that quote...I doubt they know. They're either really confident or in denial. I highly doubt there's any type of "Failure Plan" in place. What astounds me is that he seems to publicly recognize that all of his stations are going to suffer for the sake of their experiments.

 

One thing is for sure though, Scripps LOVES social media and thinks that their markets will also love social media and pop culture-driven shows. The only problem is, in Kansas City at least, people don't. They're sick of it and we already have shows like TMZ, Entertainment Tonight, Inside Edition etc. that provide such content.

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What would you expect from a 4pm newscast? Most of them are pretty heavy on the fluff. Sports at 4pm is pretty pointless. Long form and/or investigative pieces are more suited to later newscasts. A great majority of the 4pm newscasts I've seen tend to be pretty "soft" They seem to have a lot of "lifestyle" stories and other "fluff" pieces. Given the type of shows these newscasts are usually replacing and the demos that come with those slots I'm not sure what else you can do. A "hard" news format would likely be a risker proposition than running a "softer" newscast that appeals to people that would normally be watching Ellen, Dr. Oz, etc. in that timeslot.

My apologies. I based my earlier opinion on watching WOIO's 4pm newscast. They seem to run a less fluffy newscast (it's called 19 ACTION NEWS! It better not have any fluff!!). However, having a straight 4pm newscast has put a toll on its ratings at 5 and 6. Granted, 19 does have a few consumer stories at 4 and an occasional "Top 5 Bars/Eateries" but it mostly errs on hard news.
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They may have been the only one, I don't know what the other stations do.

 

KNXV has a 4, 5 and 6 right now, with the 4pm being replaced by The Now. 4:30 was The List.

 

There is no other 4pm newscast currently on the air in Phoenix except for KPNX's "EVB Live" which isn't always that newsy.

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